ABSTRACT
The chapter talks about the climate change regulatory framework that has been developed on the basis of the scientific findings of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Reports. The three flexibility mechanisms introduced by the Kyoto Protocol were two project-based instruments, namely the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) and the Joint Implementation, and one market-based tool, the Emission Trading. Through the application of the ecological sustainability paradigm to the internal environmental conflicts that may characterize climate change-related investments, an ecologically sound assessment of those relevant investments projects may be performed, prior to their realization. To this effect, the traditional instruments devised under both international law and national laws for preventive evaluation purposes, such as the environmental impact assessment (EIA) procedure for the preventive evaluation of the possible negative effects of certain projects, as well as the strategic impact assessment (SIA) for the preventive evaluation of the possible negative effects of certain plans and programmes, could represent an appropriate starting point.
